Ladies Night

Ever since UK Singer/DJ/producer Cooly G’s first release on Hyperdub Records, 2009’s Narst/Love Dub, she has managed to elevate her sound with each successive recording. At times she merely hints at her influences and at other times makes them blatantly obvious, though even then they still possess the ability to sound wholly original. Her last LP, 2012’s Playin’ Me, saw her mixing dub and house beats with reggae riffs, though perhaps most daring feat was her cover of Coldplay’s “Trouble” which employed Chris Martin’s piano riff paired with baseball bat cracking drum beats. Cooly G herself crooned the vocals and made them sound wholly apologetic in a way that Martin failed do with his feigned falsetto.

As the title of her newest LP suggests, Wait ‘Til Night is an album best suited for listening to after the sun has set. Another reason being that this is Cooly G’s tonally quietest record to date, and many of the tracks are musically toned down as well. Thematically they borrow their compositions from her early 80s electronic British compatriots such as Depeche Mode and Eurythmics. These influences largely pay off and help to give Wait ‘Til Night a cohesiveness that her previous releases lacked.

The album opens with “Wait ‘Til Night” which begins with thick synths and laser like samples set to simple punchy drum beats. Things get going as Cooly G’s sexy and simmering vocals help to heat up the spacey, Sade-esque “Like a Woman Should.” A scratchy sexy electric guitar riff opens “Your Sex” and then recedes into the background and randomly pops in and out, squealing with high notes, as hip hop synths bounce along with scattered drum beats. The squealing guitar reappears again even more hauntingly in the drum ‘n’ bass heavy “Dancing” which takes hip hop roots and blends them with solid soulful rhythms.

The second half of the album takes on more of an R&B vocal feel beginning with “So Deep” which as its title suggests, is permeated with lyrical innuendos of a sexual encounter. Likewise “1st Time” has that late 90s feel of a Brandy-styled ballad sung over a simple piano and drum loop, with bits of cheap computer noise samples mixed in. Though this ballad style works better later on “Freak You,” a synth/reggae hybrid with wispy vocals, it’s not nearly as good as its counterpart “Fuck With You,” with its softly-strummed violins providing the music as Cooly half raps and half moans her message. The album closes with the dancey discotheque feel “The 3 Of Us.”

With Wait ‘Til Night, Cooly G has once again shown what makes listening to her worthwhile. She is an artist that works within her genre as all the while she continues to shape and produce music which makes one wonder if there is such a thing as genre at all.